Art is what you make of it. Any who fail to see the artistic merits of Tracy Emin obviously have done no background reading on her.

It is indeed old fashioned to claim that only paintings are art, Duchamp's Fountain (created in the 1910s) is undeniably art sculpture, the amount of methodology in his work is unfatho able, and yet there are still those who would rather see a pretty painting of a bluebird, with no more theory than the fact that it is a bluebird, and would proclaim it art above Calle, above Phil Collins, above Wearing.
Would you rather be challenged, or merely wallow in your comfort zone? How many people will be interested in talking about that bluebird a few years from now?

Tom Hemsley, Worcester,

When it comes to modern art, it seems to me that the art isn't in producing the 'work' but is instead in persuading people that it's art and it's good!

S Eagle, Reigate, Surrey,

Modern art is not meaningless. It can be explained by the discipline of Sociolinguistics, which examines the social functions of the messages that peope transmit to each other in speech, writing, etc. Modern art fulfils what is known in Sociolinguistics as a "communicative function" - i.e. it gets a message across. If you want to put the message into words, it could be roughly translated as "piss off!", since all the traditional rules are deliberately and recklessly broken. The intended "recipient" of the message was originally the rich patron who commissioned artists to paint particular pictures - landscapes, portraits, etc. - on demand.

However, the social revolution of the twentieth century has made rich aristocratic patrons obsolete, and the message of "piss off!", originally directed at these patrons, is now being illogically directed at the general public. And oddly enough the general public (with the exception of D Case of Newquay) accepts it without a word of protest.

Edmund Burke, Kingston upon Thames, England

I somehow have a vision of a group of artists sitting in an expensive restaurant spending their prize money as they take turns to come up with the most absurd idea to try and fool the gullible art world with next.

"Half a cow?"
"Been done."
"A crack in the floor?"
"Done that."
"Going on Celebrity Big Brother?"
"Worth a try, god knows we artists have no idea what will win a prize next."

nick, reading,

Call me old fashioned but an artist is someone who paints a picture. They were very popular before the invention of photography and to capture a recognisable likeness on canvas was a skill that only a few people possessed.

Not today - cut a sheep in half, it's ART. Scrawl names all over the outside of a tent, it's ART. Don't bother to make your bed, it's ART.

I think the skill is missing - my 'acid test' to tell if a piece of art is worth calling ART is to ask myself
'Can you tell if the artist made a mistake?'
Like Constable painting the Haywain with five wheels.

'It's art because I say it's art' seems to be all the artist needs to say to collect not thousands but millions of pounds.

Anyone got a copy of 'The Emperors New Clothes?'

GJB, Slough, Berkshire

Who do these con-artists think they are kidding, all this so called modern art is just a huge sham and a way of fleecing a gullible (stupid) government of public money. These people are nothing but a bunch of charlatans and it is time a halt was called to this whole charade.

D Case, Newquay,